Our day-tripping rules are simple. Step one: hang out for a few hours to get a feel for the town we’re visiting (which, admittedly, is tough to do in just a few hours) and hopefully learn a thing or two about that town’s history. Step two is to find a local restaurant (preferably a community favorite) that matches the town’s character. Step three? Make it back to Dallas for dinner.
The words charming and quaint are overused when describing endearing small towns (guilty), but yes, Mineola is the epitome of both. Visit its high-energy downtown during weekends, and you’ll see a small town (population 5,000 give or take) that’s thriving. The buzzing red-bricked streets of downtown Mineola bustle with car and foot traffic and are lined with nostalgic antique shops, boutiques (shameless plug/full disclosure: one of those trendy boutiques, the GOAT Apparel Company, belongs to my sister), family-owned restaurants and craft coffee shops.
Drive into the seemingly infinite void of rural Texas, far off the interstate and into the sprawling web of backcountry roads, and you’ll see that much of the state is dotted with countless decaying small towns where abandoned buildings dominate the landscape.
Mineola, though, isn’t one of those towns. Despite its vibrant heartbeat (there’s a healthy live music and art scene and ample outdoor-nature activities), Mineola is still a town where you can drive down streets and spot cows basking in the shade of someone’s front porch (seriously).
This is the main dining area, but there's another large dining space a room over for when it gets busy (which it definitely does).
Nick Reynolds
We visited during the weekday lunch rush, and the East Texas Burger Co. was lively. We can only imagine the business it does on weekends. The space is largely no-frills but has a certain small-town coziness and quaintness (there’s that word again). The menu features a bevy of standout burgers and sandwiches — chicken-fried steak sandwiches, catfish sandwiches, Philly cheesesteaks, po’ boys and anything from quarter-pound burgers to 1-pound behemoths (with no shortage of toppings to choose from). Also on the menu: chicken-fried steak (including a “Texas-sized” version), flame-grilled hamburger steak, fried shrimp and fried catfish (and more).
All burgers are cooked to order, and it’s worth noting that the menu says all patties are cooked well done. But in our experience, it was closer to medium (or maybe medium-well). I usually prefer medium-rare to medium, but these burgers are still perfectly juicy. They’ve been grilling burgers here longer than we’ve been alive; they obviously know what they’re doing. We went with the “Old Fashioned Burger” basket ($9), which is a half-pound patty with mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles. For a side, you’ll choose from hand-cut fries, handmade potato chips, sweet potato fries, waffle fries or curly fries.
And (of course) we had to try the chicken-fried steak ($12). The beef is grass-fed, hand-battered, prepped in a buttermilk egg wash, dredged in seasoned flour and deep-fried to a golden brown. It’s a quality chicken-fried steak, and the sides were equally stellar: Beautifully sautéed and seasoned green beans and caramelized onions that come with hunks of sausage and a “loaded” potato salad that was one of the better potato salads we’ve had in a while.
For dessert, we divvied up an apple fried pie. Fried pies are big around these parts, and in recent years, we’re learning why (because they’re good, that’s why).
On the way back to Dallas, where we’d inevitably join the swarms of vehicles participating in the sadistic ritual of bumper-to-bumper gridlock known as rush hour, we couldn’t help but already miss the perpetual go-with-the-flow vibes of small-town USA, where cows hang out on porches and our hardest decision was what flavor fried pie to get.
Mineola's historic Select Theater is still operating.
Nick Reynolds
